On Art and Design

Oddballers,

Another amazing post today because it is inspired by a new book I just bought from Angie Taylor called "Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist." As I was reading the introduction I came across some ideas that I think will be beneficial for all of you. Not only will you understand artistry a little better, but get into an artist's shoes and see what kinds of things they struggle with on a daily basis.

The first thing that I find important to talk about is the difference between art and design. The author says that "art is pure self-expression and is visually achieved with a combination of explanation, discovery, experimentation, and freedom." This, I will agree with. Making something art is entirely self-expressionist and requires complete artistic freedom to execute. In film making, art films will come about when they are either independent filmmakers on their own, or someone says to them, "tell a story in 'such and such' time." Its hard for an artist to fully express themselves when they are bombarded by parameters that they have to uphold to. So for this reason, I do agree with this idea.

On the other hand, the author defines design as "communicating ideas to other people." She also continues on writing that, "you can use techniques you have stumbled upon while being "artists" within your designs, but the execution is generally more considered and structured than a piece of pure self-expressionistic art." Now this, I think, is where film creation stands in it's field. It is a design field. Not an art field. You can be artistic in film but it won't be successful unless there is some structure to the art that you are creating. Film forces you to think about all the elements and how the piece will be executed before you even turn on the camera. This is absolutely essential to understand.

Design isn't always about pleasing other people, it is being able to have common ground with someone. Have you ever felt disconnected from an artist when you look at a painting in an art gallery. I do. I feel their emotion, I engulf myself in their worldview, and I explore their every stroke, but I cannot understand them completely. I am forced to just take the piece as creative freedom and not as a form of structure that I can critique the artist by.

Film is different. There is a structure to it. There is a "good" and a "bad" movie. I don't believe in art ever being good or bad because it is entirely defined by the person critiquing. However, there are areas in film making that can be critiqued. Like story, and character development, and lighting, and camera. You can't necessarily critique the execution all the time or say that "so in so" can't make a film because it is extremely team collaborative and involves more people than the director, I can assure you that. But you can say that "the person in this shot was very overexposed" and most people will write it off as a legitimate critique. That's what we have to understand about Design and Art. Design has critiquing parameters and Art does not. You can dislike an art piece, but you cannot say its bad. You can say a film is bad and you can explain why by critiquing it.

Starting to Make any Sense?

Probably Not....haha

But I will leave you to your thoughts. Feel free to comment on this piece explaining what art and design means to you. I am fascinated in knowing what kinds of things you all are thinking about today.


For the Grace of God,

Oddball

On Being a Jerk and Skidding on Ice...It Makes Sense if you Read it...I think

Hey Oddballers,

Photo Taken by Oddball

It's been a long time, TOO long actually, but I guess I needed the time off to really focus on what kinds of things I needed to be writing about. And honestly, I don't think I was being completely open and honest with all of you in regards to what needed to be said.Writing is more than just coming up with a topic and writing about it. It encompasses many things, like art, passion, love, responsibility, and diligence. Hopefully, I will take some more time to write meaningful and heartfelt posts for all of you out there.

At this very  moment, I am writing next to two, very inappropriate and downright rude men. They literally sit inside and talk about people in negative ways. I will not give examples but honestly the fact that are in a Christian campus is really disappointing. They should be careful with the words they use in daily life because you never know who might be listening. In this case, it is a returning blogger. Who decided to write about them because they inspired me to think about what types of qualities we have in ourselves that make us just like them; total complete jerks.

I guess for me, my weakness would have to be something on the lines of not being able to tell when I'm being serious or not. I tend to be very sarcastic with the people I talk to and honestly, I probably need to stop being overly sarcastic. I guess that is what makes me a jerk. I tend to focus on myself sometimes and not really look at the bigger picture.

Is there something about yourself that makes you a jerk? I'm pretty sure if we thought long and hard we could come up with something that makes us a bad person. However, I don't think it is healthy to dwell on our faults, but to only be aware and make effort to correct them. It shouldn't be a sad story on how our lives are a complete mess because we just can't hurt ourselves that much. We live in a fallen and broken world, but we cannot dwell on the falseness qualities of the world. We need to stop and see all the wonderful miracles we are living in everyday.

For example, I slid on the ice with my car today, luckily I did not hit anything but I guess it opened my eyes to the reality that we cannot control everything in our lives. We are in a broken world, therefore there is a lot of ice we have to skid through to make it to our destination safe. You want to know the first thing I was thinking about when I skidded on the ice? I thought about God, and I said to myself, "God, get me through this!" and surprisingly I was completely calm the whole time. I realized that as a driver, you only can control so much and there comes to a point where the timing and environment no matter how you drive, will determine whether you survive the next five minutes. Life, is honestly like this. WE need God to be able to get us through the ice in our lives, and we need to be calm to not freak out and forget that God is with us.

That's all I have for today. :)

G'day Oddballers,

Be Odd, Be You, and Be a Christ Follower(if you want to be)

Oddball

New School Year....New You

Hey Oddballers,

Guess What time it is??? Time for a new Oddball writing and video blog Season! Many people have asked me why I didn't bother to write much this summer....my response to you is this. After writing blogs for nine months, I thought maybe I should take the summer off to get some inspiration. Trust me, this year's blog posts shall not be boring whatsoever. I have many great things in store for my readers this season!

Now,
Today's topic is on new school years. The one day of the year where most people are happier to go to school than their own parents. hahaha It's a time to reconnect with old friends and make some new ones :) The time when the new batch of Freshman are here, and it's up to you to either avoid them completely or try to get to know some of the names. I personally want to try to get to know the Freshman on campus and be a friendly person to approach this year.

I think spiritually we should have a goal for the semester. Something to think about throughout the year and really focus on, for me, I want to work on my level of celebration. Learn to celebrate God more in my life instead of focusing entirely on trust and faith. The things that happened this summer solidified those things for me.


I'm going to keep it short and sweet today. Think of a theme for yourself this summer, and I will try to touch on Celebrating God the rest of the Semester. Not EVERYDAY but sometimes when it seems relevant. :)

because, well, CELEBRATIONS = FREAKIN' AWESOMENESS

yeah, I'm sure you really missed my equations right?? LOL

Much Love and God Bless

Oddball

The Spiritual Gift of Administration: Let's keep the world Organized

 

Proverbs 25:26 (ESV) ^"Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked."
 

G'day Oddballers,

I'm would first and foremost like to say how utterly crazy my life has been the past few days. It is no excuse to stop writing and not write blog posts, but any of my time that I spent in relaxation I honestly didn't want to spend writing.  So here I go, forcing myself to take some time for my blog readers and just write a post when I am fully awake and functioning...you're so very welcome. I will do my best to try and write more often so that you have more material for you to inspire your weeks with Christian ideas. Sometimes we just need a little something that is emotionally or intellectually stimulating in nature.

So today's spiritual gift is administration, and the reason why I really like this gift is that it is a skill that I personally believe is overlooked in some fashion. What the spiritual gift of administration contains is the ability to give direction on behalf of others that result in efficient operation and accomplishment of goals. It also includes the ability to organize people and things to make things more organized and efficient as well.

Why is this important? Well, the world is chaotic. That's why! People need some organization in their lives..and some people just have this gift at making things organized and making it more clear. So many people have things wrapped up in their lives to the point where they feel so overwhelmed and stressed that they turn to other things to handle that overload or stress. What the administrator's job spiritually is to help make people's lives easier by helping others around them get more organized. Make decisions on behalf of groups that will make the lives of the people spiritually bound and more efficient. We need people like this in our world to get excited about getting organized. Having a plan and following it through. Managing aspects of our lives in an organized fashion. It is up to us to make sure that there are plenty of administrators around us.

Find the people that seem to organize life well and ask them how they manage everything. Sometimes all a person needs is a new way at looking at life. So take the time and enlighten yourself with the administrators around you. And administrators, help the people around you get organized and make sure that you make decisions that benefit the body as a whole.
Let's keep the world organized.


Much Love and God Bless

Oddball

The Spiritual Gift of Faith

"These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (1 Peter 1:7)
 

 Good Morning Oddballers,

Today is on the Spiritual Gift of faith, which to me, is one of my favorite gifts to possess. It involves a sort of confidence and trust in God that many people struggle with on a daily basis. In reality, if a challenge is faced in a person's life, one of the major things that becomes something to work on involves Faith. It is ultimately one of the most rewarding Gifts to have because of the fact that through faith so many other gifts feed off of it. Similar to Love in a way. Love is the foundation of many spiritual gifts, and so is faith. Think about it....what if Love and Faith was used in spiritual gifts???? We could seriously change the world.

So I chose this Bible verse today because I wanted to stress how important faith is to God, it says, "which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor." We need to be aware of how important Faith can be, even it is broken in a way because of the sinful world we live in. We need to have faith there at all times, regardless of our circumstances.

Let me put it to you straight forward. I'm a blogger, I'm a young woman, and I am going through some of the toughest things in life involving my family. I feel torn and pulled in mulitiple directions, but I have faith that through Christ he can help me calm myself down, and by wise in the situations that face me in my future. I have confidence and trust that nomatter what happens it is all a part of God's plan. I am extremely broken, I cry most of the time when no one is looking. I spend mos of my time being strong for my friends and letting them know how ultimately loved they really are. I spend a lot of my time sending off positive vibes to the people around me so that they know that regardless of my circumstances I have a reason to smile.

I have Faith in that. I have Faith in God. He died on the cross for me even though I don't deserve it, and I thank him for a million other little things and the millions of things that will come in the future. I know that through thick or thin, or any challenge that faces me, I have trust and confidence in the Lord. You Should Too. Faith is ultimately one of the most important things a Christ Follower can have.

So here this, I need you all to be Strong for me. Have faith in the Lord through your trials and tribulations. Be Strong for Jesus. He needs your strength so he can mold you into the man/woman God would be proud of.

Have a wonderful Holy Spirit Led Day,

Oddball

The Spiritual Gift of Teaching

"Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:19)

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today's Spiritual Gift is on Teaching..and I don't want to focus on school-ish teaching, because I feel like it only covers half of the role of Spiritual teaching. To me, teaching is not only about a Christ Follower teaching others by their actions, but also being open to letting others teach them.

Let me put it to you this way. I know a lot of people that have this spiritual gift that just have a knack at knowing what to say to others to get them to learn something about life and spirituality. They find the perfect way to slip a little life lesson into everything they say, and they always seem to know the right thing to say before they say it. However, they also have the gift of knowing when to stop teaching and just let God teach them something that they can use in their life as well.

In my opinion, I think it is important as Christians to know when we first meet someone to be aware if we have something to teach them, or they have something to teach us. Learning is something that never stops. We are constantly learning new things, broadening our minds, and expiriencing more and more the longer we stay on the Earth that we live in. As people, we need to make sure that however we present ourselves to society, it needs to be something that others can learn off of in a positive way. We need to be able to know when we face challenges how to accept the fact that we don't know everything and we still have much learning to do.

The reason why I picked this Bible verse today is because it really captures some of the things that I wanted to say. Basically, it supports a very common phrase "practice what you preach." If you are willing to teach someone an aspect of Christianity, be aware that the audience you  are speaking too will assume that you practice this regularily and you are teaching it because you do it. For example, if you do a whole presentation on swearing, and then when you stub your toe on the table and swear, then you are undermining every little ounce of credibility on that topic becaues you failed to practice what you were preaching.

Same concept people, we need to be aware of what we are teaching, and whether or not we need to be taught something from others.

Have a thought provoking day :)

Oddball

The Spiritual Gift of Service

 

"If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." (John 12:26)

 

Dear Oddballers,

 

I hope you all are doing fantastic. I know it's been awhile since I wrote my las blog post or even have done a video blog, but I'm working on it. Things have gotten a little bit crazy the past few days and it's taking everything to stay up to date on all my assignments due for my classes. But don't worry, it's all managable. I just have to chang a few things about my schedule of my day to see what I do when.

 

Nomatter, Today's spiritual gift is on Service. I"m sure you all know what service is, but I want to talk about the importance of Acts of Service to those that have Acts of Service as their Giving and Recieving Love Languages.

 

If you do not know what Love Languages are, there are some fabulous books you can read to elaborate, but for now, they basically are 5 categories that people give and recieve affection (acts of service, touch, words, quality time, and gifts). If you really badly want to know what mine are. I am the best at giving gifts, and saying words of affirmation. I'm the best at recieving quality time and words of affirmation. There ya go, moving on.

 

Service in my opinion is absolutely one of the main foundations to following Jesus Christ, just like the Bible verse of choice is saying this morning, we all need to be servants of Christ. But what exactly does that look like for a person? Well, I think in order to understand the basic foundation of service we need to understand why it is important to those who give and recieve acts of service. People that give acts of service tend to be the kind of people that ususally serve others without thinking and/or find themselves doing too many things for other people instead of themselves. Service to them is a way to show how much they truely care about the people they are around and it helps them as people humble themselves and take the time to think about others before themselves.

 

The people that tend to recieve Acts of Service the best find it absolutely essential that actions speak louder than words. They want to see how much you care about them by what you do for them. Not in a selfish way, but more or less just affirmation that they have a special place in your heart.

 

We should be thinking about God when we question whether to serve someone or not. We should always have "serve Jesus" in the back of our minds every single day. As Christ followers, it is our job to represent Christ by the way we treat other people, and there isn't a whole lot of better examples than doing acts of service for other people. So GO out There..and SERVE the people around you. JUST DO IT. ;)

 

Have a great Serving of Christ Day,

 

Oddball

 

The Spiritual Gift of Mercy

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5)

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today I want to touch on the spiritual gift of mercy because It is a spiritual gift that I need to cover for mt spiritual gift series. I realize that I have recently done a post on mercy, but I want to try and take a different approach on mercy and see how as disciples we can demonstrate mercy to the people around us.

"Mercy" in Latin, means "price paid" and is a broad term that refers to benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a "variety of ethical, relgious, social, and legal contexts" according to the dictionary. It's interesting how mercy can be connected to price paid on a Christian standpoint since Christ paid for our sins on the cross and gave us "mercy". Maybe in a way, Jesus dying on the cross was a form of mercy, because we as sinners were forgiven for our sin at that very moment. Jesus paying the price was mercy, and we should see it as that. I try not to connect mercy and forgiveness together when I talk with people, but now that I have been reading a bit on mercy, I feel like they are roughly one and the same and should be talked about as such. We should forgive people and pay the price for forgiveness. That is the basic foundation of Christianity.

Am I saying that mercy involves sacrifice? Absolutely, we need to sacrifice our bitterness, anger, and our earthly desires to forgive and give "mercy" to those who are sometimes undeserving. We need to sacrifice how we feel about another person sometimes just to do what is right and in God's image. Mercy isn't something that comes easy. If it is easy for you, then maybe you aren't working hard enough. It takes recognition and discipline to truely deny yourself, take up your cross, and sacrifice yourself for others regardless of their position, status, or burdens.

We as Christians need to step up to the plate and take a stand with Mercy and show Mercy to the people around us. I think it would be absolutely amazing to watch how the world will change to be an amazing place if all the lukewarm Christians fully committed themselves and Biblical Christians together stepping up to the plate and showing some genuine Mercy. Because Like the musician Duffy says, "I'm only begging you for mercy, so why won't you release me?"

Come On people, show some mercy, sacrifice for others. Pay the price.

How much are you willing to pay for your faith??

God Bless,

Oddball

The Spiritual Gift of Leadership

"When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, But when a wicked man rules, people groan." (Proverbs 29:2)
 

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today Is the next day of Spiritual Gifts, and today I want to touch on Leadership. There are so many things that go into leadership, so it will be difficult for me to really take the term and get into huge detail on what a leader is and isn't. I spent a lot of time on this word throughout my teen retreat years as a small group leader, and what I learned in my opinion may describe leadership well. So here I Got

One thing that I learned about Leadership is that it is not necessarily who is the most outgoing or who takes control of the group or situation the quickest, it is about adaptability. How we handle change and problem solve. For example, in a small group setting, one thing I noticed is the best leaders were the one's that evaluated the situation and made the choice on whether to talk or sit back and let the group share ideas. It is a hard skill for many of us to hold our tounges and let other's speak, but that is what I found to be good leadership. Another thing is the ability to portray Christ through the decision making, thought processing, and speaking of the person. How the person demonstrates faith is absolutely essential to leadership, and people who have the gift of leadership have a very important gift in humanity. We as people need to be adaptable and portray Christ in a postive manner.

I do realize that many people could define leadership in other ways, but to me, that is how I define  and seperate leaders in my life. As we all go about our days, I guess we should be thinking about how we show leadership or view leadership in our lives. Do we look for people who are Christ centered, or do we look for people who can just take control of the situation? Do we see ourselves as people who tend to speak up on a regular basis, or people that tend to not say much in a group? How can I as a person become a Leader and a follower in society?? These are all questions we should be asking ourselves daily.

I hope you all have a good day :)

Oddball

The Spiritual Gift of Giving

"…the righteous gives and does not hold back." (Proverbs 21:26)

Good Morning Oddballers,

It's finally the end of Spring Break for me, which means it is the start of my series on spiritual gifts. Today we will start our journey off with Giving, because I feel that giving back is something that many people should be doing, and as a spiritual gift, it can be quite fullfilling and rewarding.

So today, I chose a really simple Bible verse because one, I'm tired after a very busy Spring Break having almost no free time to myself, and two, it gets to the point. I feel like there isn't really a logical explanation for putting down a Bible verse that is two paragraphs long if normal readers interpret the scripture differently. Just Saying.

Now unto business, I think giving is something that all of us can try to do. For example, we can give to others by sharing our wisdom, giving gifts, writing a note, serving the community, helping the poor and hungry, and just by being in their presense. Giving first is one of the best principles that we as Christians can have. The ability to give to others and not expect anything in return. It sounds easier than it is to actually practice. Because when we put God first in our hearts, then we tend to naturally give first because we are driven by the holy spirit to do so.

Another thing I find important about giving is to give wholeheartedly and secretly. Just because you give back to the community, doesn't mean you can brag about it on a social networking site. Now, I know that I was updating others on the recent happenings of the ministry I was volunteering at during Spring Break, but honestly, I didn't share any of the things that I was doing necessarily because sometimes it just isn't worth sharing. There are a few fantastic moments with God that happened that week that I will treasure in my heart, I don't need to share that with many other people. That's is why sometimes when we give, we don't have to tell people, sometimes it is just better to enjoy the gift of giving back to yourself.

Lastly, I think it is important to give only what you have and to give freely. Don't go to the nearest gas station, steal something, and then give it to someone. I know there was a previous woman that used to work at the ministry I was volunteering for and the woman would take donations that were given, hide them, put them in her truck, and give them to her family. Yes, the giving part was noble, but how she got the gifts were not. ONLY give what you have, and freely give it. Don't put conditions on service. Just serve and not expect anything in return.

Have a wondeful Day Everyone

Oddball

Having Spiritual Gifts Intruduction

 

"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another [divers] kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." (1 Corin 12:7-11) (KJV)

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today  I want to touch on our spiritual gifts. Because honestly, people don't know what they are gifted in. Plain and simple.I don't really want to go on a huge tangent today, so I'm going to keep it a bit simple.

I decided to do a series on Spiritual Gifts. Covering each gift for what it is and make others aware of gifts they could possess in their life. SO Today, I want to talk about the importance of spiritual gifts and list a few I want to cover these next couple weeks :)

Spiritual gifts are important to me because they are tools that we can use to minister and be disciples. It is the qualities in us that just come easy for us. We are great at doing these things when we interact with others around us. They are used in God's image. It showcases the good things about each and every one of us. For me, as I'm sitting in a new environment, I immediately try to figure out who is the leader in the environment, and then I look for what qualities they possess that make them the leader in the situation. Most of the time, the good things about that person as a leader had something to do with their spiritual gifts. That's why I'm going to talk about spiritual gifts. As Christians, we need to utilize our gifts to introduce people to the Holy Spirit. Being aware makes us role models for others who really need help.  Here are a few gifts I want to touch on:

GIVING, LEADERSHIP,  MERCY, PROPHECY, SERVICE, TEACHING, ADMINISTRATION, DISCERNMENT, FAITH, HEALING, HELPS, KNOWLEDGE, MIRACLES, TOUNGES, WISDOM, EVANGELISM, MISSOIONARY, CELIBACY.

Of course, there are plenty more, but I think these are the pretty big ones, and that is what I want to cover these next few days. Let's chat about our gifts so that we can grow as followers in Christ.

Have a Wonderful Day Guys,

Oddball

The Bible Brings Me Back to You (God)

 

"In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye." (Deuteronomy 32:10)

 

Good Morning Oddballers,

 

Today I really want to focus on overcomming obstacles in our lives, because it seems like myself and many other people I know are struggling in this area of their life.Recently I have been fighting with the thoughts that I don't have a purpose or place. Obviously that is completely untrue on every level, but I have been struggling with those kinds of thoughts recently. What I've found is that reading some scripture and getting involved in a depression topical Bible study was a good way to bring me back to Jesus again. When I'm struggling with something, usually I try to narrow down the problem, and then do some Bible study on that area and see what I find. So yep. I'm working on depression at the moment. I don't feel depressed, I just feel like my heart is heavily troubled, which can lead to depression if not treated right away. So that's why I'm doing a Bible study on Depression.

 

What I want you all to know is that having a troubled heart is something you can overcome. Yes, its going to take A LOT of work on your part and some major faith in Jesus to help guide you through, but trust me, once the wave is over (it hasn't ended for me quite yet but I know it will), you will feel so light and unbelievably happy. It will just hit you randomly and you will realize that God will never leave or forsake you. It's absolutely breathtaking. There is nothing more powerful than the emotion comming from an emotional wellness state farthest from God. :)

 

The verse I put up today kind of shows what kind of thing I'm talking about. Even if we are in a desert in our lives, God knows where we are, he knows what we are going through, and he wants to helps us overcome whatever we need to handle in our lives. He will shield you from your enemies and care for you. He will gaurd you and make you strong. What I"m saying is, NOMATTER what you are feeling, God knows about it, and is trying to find a way to guide you through the wave so that you don't hit the sand with a THUD and a bunch of seaweed wrapped around your ankles.

 

As Christians we can conquered anything through God. So if you are in a mental slump, the Bible will lead you back to God. Don't forget that ...EVER..I don't know what I'd do with myself if people didn't quite understand that concept. So many young Christian lives could be saved this way, and that's why I am writing about it to you today.

 

Much Love and God Bless,

 

Oddball

"I'm Only Begging You For Mercy"

 "Be you therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." (Luke 6:36)

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today I want to talk about Mercy, becaue I feel like it is something I haven't really talked about in a blog post. So here I go. :)

According to the dictionary, mercy is compassion or kindly forbearance shown towards an offender, enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity or benevolence. So basically what it means is showing compassion towards others who do wrong towards you.

It sounds a whole lot harder than it looks, I mean, people dissapoint us everyday. We get angry at others because they lie, and steal from us. They will end up hurting us, but showing mercy is a way to be more like Christ in his image. One of the greatest things about God is his mercy. For example, how many times have you dissapointed God? I think that is a weird question to ask conisidering we are all sinners. Most likely, the answer will be around 10 times a day, and if you have lived around 10 years, that's around 3650 times. Yeah, God has shown you mercy over 3650 times. Why can't you give a person mercy once??

I think that is the question we all should be asking ourselves every once in a while. Forgiveness is along the lines of what I'm talking about, however, mercy is the glue that brings forgiveness into the picture. Feeling compassion towards a enemy is the only way forgiveness can be made for that person. I mean, who would want to forgive someone who they are not compassionate towards. This is simple logic people. That's why it is sooooooo important that we as people show mercy. It's so important for our health and well being.

So now, I'm going to post a video talking about Mercy..its a pretty famous song..H0pefully you tune into it to just relax after a long day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7ZEVA5dy-Y


Much Love

Oddball

Reflection in Our Lives

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) (KJV)

Good Morning Oddballers,

I know it's been awhile since I wrote a blog post, but I spent a lot of time relfecting on my life and my goals. So today, I want to chat with you all about why I think reflection is necessary every once in a while.

First of all, I feel like personal reflections involving yourself and God are a rejuvination tool for when in life we get overwhelmed by our circumstances. When I'm stressed. I feel the need to just sit by myself in a quiet place and just meditate with the holy spirit. Usually that calms me down and helps me focus on what I need to focus on in my day. I honestly have a kind of life that is constantly in motion. There are events, and meetings, and drama all day. I never stop listening to problems that occur in my life or dealing with problems that occur in my life. IN all honesty, if people actually walked a day in my shoes and heard my thoughts, they would think I had an extremely stressful life. Which is true. That is why I reflect and meditate often. I think I would have lost my mind by now if I hadn't.

Secondly, reflection helps a person connect with God on a more intimate level. so many of us strive to have that intimacy with others in our lives. I think, that a way we can practice being intimate with others is by working on our personal relationship with Jesus. If we as people cannot connect with our savior, how can we connect with others? That is why I like reflection as well, it teaches me how to stop, and listen intimately to others when they are speaking to me. It helps me calm down and really focus on what the other people are trying to say instead of listening to my own ambitions and jumping to conclusions. Reflection is a good way to practice these skills. Having some one on one time with our Savior is a good thing. We should be spending time alone with him. Even if its just to have a conversation or to say nothing at all. Reflection is a good thing people.

So as you all go about your days in the next few weeks, try to take an hour out of your day to just sit, read a bible, and talk to God. It is one of the most refreshing things to do to spend your spare time. It makes me feel better after a long day, and I'm pretty sure it will make you feel better as well.


Have a Wonderful Day,

Oddball

Making Realistic Expectations is the Way to Go

"According to my earnest expectation and [my] hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but [that] with all boldness, as always, [so] now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether [it be] by life, or by death." (Philippians 1:20) (KJV)
 

Good Morning Oddballers,

 Today I wanted to touch on the topic of expectations, because I feel like many people make set an expectation for the people around them and for themselves that seem to be really unrealistic. This can cause a whole lot of problems for themselves as well as others. So today I wanted to show a Bible verse that mentions the kind of expectation we should have for God, which is different than the kind of expectations we should have for others.

Yes, what this verse is talking about is really genious, however, reality check is this----the people around us, aren't God. GO FIGURE. that most likely answers 80 Billion of your questions. hahaha. But seriously, the expectations we have for God SHOULD NOT be the same as the ones we have for others.

Let me put it to you this way. People sin. People will hurt you. People will make you mad. God is consistent, loyal, and will never forsake us. HE is sinless in nature. Why expect others to be the same in your life? So many people I know tend to get super angry at people for ridiculous reasons. They can't forgive another person because they lied about where they were and because of that we get bitter and angry. That is honestly wrong on so many levels. Expecting perfection from anyone is wrong, because you will be dissapointed every time. Don't set yourself up to get hurt.

Also, don't put unrealistic expectations on yourself. "Oh I want to be 110 lbs "when in reality you are 5'11" and your BMI would be 4% at that weight. Ugh. Ladies and Gents, don't strive for unrealistic expectations about your looks or anything else on that line. Even other types of qualities in yourself. It will cause massive amounts of habitual self monitoring that you really don't need. SO DON"T DO IT. set your expectations on the Lord our God. and just breathe okay???


Make realistic expectations for yourselves and others,

I wish you all the best today,

Oddball

Beautiful Women have Beautiful Hearts

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." (Matthew 23:27)

Okay Oddballers,

I'm going to be honest about something in myself that I really like. Sometimes during my free time, I like to browse through black and white wedding photos, because I feel that they really capture the inner beauty of a woman. There is just something special about a woman in a wedding gown. Their true beauty just shines through them and when I look at the woman in the picture, I think of all the sturggles and heartbreaks she must have went  through to get to the place she is at in that moment. Deciding that she was going to devote her life to a companion. I don't know, it's just been something that has fascinated me for a long time. I enjoy it, and I just thought you guys should know.

The reason why I brought it up is because I want to touch on inner beauty today. AGAIN. I really repeat this topic because I know its what SO many people around me struggle with. Everyone, in a way, is striving to reach the modern standard of beauty and be what other people call "attractive" physically. IN my opinion, it isn't all about the physical things, but rather the person that is weaved in their hearts, the kind of woman that projects enormous amounts of Joy and love towards others around them. Inner beauty is the MOST attractive thing I notice in people. I find myself drawn towards people with the greatest hearts. They just light up a room and make me want to be around them and never leave their side. IT's that powerful for me.

Yes, I can't ignore the fact that physical attraction is important...it is what sparks intrest in a person, and I think that is why God made us that way. He gave us that gift so that we can be drawn to people in our lives that could impact us in an amazing way. Just because a person is drop dead gorgeous does not mean that I'm going to be obsessed with them. I achknowledge their beauty and move on. That's kind of how I roll people. Because honestly, God judges us by our hearts and what our intentions are, if a person's heart isn't beautiful but they are attractive, then I have no interest in them. It's all about their morals, who they are, and what they believe and hold to be true.

So as you go about your day..think of all the beautiful people you have in your life, and just talk to them. They may inspire you today.

I wish you the best :)

God Bless,

Oddball

Confusion..What the heck is going on??

"For God is not [the author] of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." (1 Corinthians 14:33)(KJV)
 

Good Day Oddballers,

There are times at the end of a very long day where I sit down at my desk and ask myself, "What the heck just happened?" This occurs to me quite frequently. There are many aspects of living on Earth that just confuse me. If I actually had time to write all my confusions out, this blog post would be WAY too long and everyone would stop reading it.So instead, I want to focus on confusion in general. Hopefully tackling some sort of understanding in the world that will always confuse us.

Let me give you my opinion on confusion. One, I feel like confusion is absolutely irrevocably normal on every level. Since we aren't God, the creator, its a given that we will find ourselves super confused about many things. Also, I feel like through God we can find a deeper understand of our world and have peace over the things that may confuse us.

I don't think there is an answer to everything that God will really want to give us, but I do think that the answers will come eventually, and in the end, everything will fall into place.

When one is confused, we tend to question God and his "all-knowing" capabilities. This, my friend, is normal. Because we don't understand something, we blame our teacher for not teaching us what we need to understand. We get frustrated with God because we are so confused about a certain event that happened to us. We want to know the WHY but nothing is making sense. We yell at God saying, "Tell me what I don't understand. If you are all-knowing, you should be able to answer all my questions."

The thing is, I kind of like being confused. It gets me to ask questions, seek God's wisdom, and become curious about the world and how it works. Yes, I can say that sometimes it can be a tedious and frustrating expirience to be confused about some aspects of our lives, however, I feel that it is important to recognize that we don't know everything, we won't know everything, and we shouldn't strive to know everything. So as you and I go about our normal lives today, I want you as well as myself to think about some things you don't understand, and just pray for wisdom and understanding. Don't get tied up in your lack of knowledge, but rather, explore the capabilities of your mind and hunt for the answers through scripture and prayer.

Let us embrace our Confusion about the planet we live in together. Get out your Bibles and your prayer journals everyone :) It's time to get to work :)

Love ya,

Oddball

The Importance of Companionship

   
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you." (John 15:1-6) (ESV)

Good Morning Oddballers,

I want to make this post rather quick this morning on companionship. I spent quite a bit of time meditating yesterday and I found that one of my desires as a person is companionship. In my opinion, I think that is a fair desire as a Christian. We all should have some sort of companion in our life to share the good moments with and help us through the hard times. I'm NOT saying a romantic relationship, rather a strong friendship that won't break apart over something trivial just because you are mad.

By the way, if you are friendsh with someone one minute, and the moment they get mad at you and you lose their friendship. They honestly didn't even value you that much in the first place. REAL friends fight through their anger and talk it out. A friendship doesn't get lost over hurt, it may be broken and take time to heal, but it will not break apart. Friendships that are strong can make it through a lot.

The verse I chose today doesn't have a whole lot to do with what I'm talking about, but I wanted to taouch on it because God is an example of a companion in our lives. He is there to help us and give us wisdom to make it through the trials and tribulations of our sinful world we live in. Like the verse says, he will take away the branches that don't bear fruit. We should have friends like this in our lives.

If you don't have friends that are willing to call out your faults and help you through them, what is the point in the friendship? If you don't have friends who are willing to stand by you and help you through the tough times, willing to openly talk to you about anything, pray for you, ask you how you are doing, and actively participate in your life just the way Jesus Christ has done for us, Then I personally believe that it is a waste of time. I would rather have  few people in my life of High Value that honor me instead of many that really don't care about me and my wellness.

That is all, Thanks for letting me rant this morning.


Much Love and God Bless,

Oddball

In order to Love Others...we have to Love Ourselves

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." (Philippians 4:8-9) (ESV)

Good Morning Oddballers,

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and because of that, I decided not to write. Usually I do not write on holidays because it gives me a day off to focus on a topic to write about later in the future. Also, it gives me time with others to make sure that they are well on that Holiday. Yesterday, my focus was to let others know that they are love by God regardless of their relationship status. I was single on Valentine's Day, and honestly having the holy spirit working through me is good enough for me. :)

So today, I want to write about loving yourself. So many people I know don't really love themselves and who they are in the inside. I think, in order to love other people, we need to learn to love ourselves the way God made us in his creation. The Bible verses I chose today really reflect on the kinds of qualities in us that we should be thinking about on a daily basis. Think about the things you do that are honorable and keep doing it. Know what is pure in you and keep it that way. Know the lovely, commendable, and excellent qualities that would give God praise, then notice them, and praise yourself for them. Love the good things that God finds in you. I"m sure there are great qualities in every single one of us if we actually took the time to stop, think, and see the beautiful creation of us.

It's up to us as Christians to love others as much as Christ loves us, if we don't love ourselves, then it is going to be very difficult to love others as well as Christ. So we got to stand up, know that we are beautiful people on the inside and out, and radiate that out to everyone you see every single day. Smile. I can't even tell you the power of a smile. Do it! All the time.

Dude.......... ---------> DO IT ALREADY!!!

Smiling = Freakin' Awesomeness


I wish you all the best on your Spiritual Journey,
God Bless,

Oddball

Lent Season..Let's GO!!

   

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster." (Joel 2:12-13) (ESV)
 

G'day Oddballers,

Today I want to touch on Lent...because..well..It's ASH WEDNESDAY! I don't really want to go into huge detail on what this day means..however, if you don't know then feel free to Google Lent or Ash Wednesday to get some more info. Today I want to talk about what I'm thinking of sacrificing this lent season. To me, there are many things I want to give up that I feel are holding me back from my full potential as a Christ follower, and one of them, which I probably won't share with anyone, will probably be the hardest thing for me to do in what is probably my whole life. It jsut kinda hit me all of a sudden..however, there have been a couple dreams recently that sollidify what I have to do. So I KNOW it's what needs to be done.

That's what makes it hard. This thing has been at the core of my heart, where I treasure it and respect it on so many levels. To be able to give up what I hold close to my heart will most likely be the hardest thing for me. I won't go into detail, but trust me, throughout these next five weeks its going to be a battle, and I will keep you all updated on the major things that will probably come up. I will try to focus on some struggles that I will be going through becaue of it. Don't worry, my blog isn't going away anytime soon. :)

So that's all I want to say really today. Hopefully if you are thinking about sacrificing something for lent (symbollically not LITERALLY), and you think you might need some help with it, feel free to send me a message or a comment on what you need help with and I will gladly be there to help out with whatever is necessary.

Have a lovely Ash Wednesday,

Oddball

Generosity

"Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full-pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back." (Luke 6:38) (NLT)
 

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today I want to touch on Generosity since it is around the time of Valentine's Day (or Singles Awareness Day depending on who you talk to), I want to touch on how to me, Valentine's Day isn't always about your significant other or family on that day. I try to be generous and loving to everyone in my life.

Let's be generous with our generosity to others. Whether this type of generosity comes from things we say, things we do, or gifts we give. It should come from the heart with the best intentions and with the expectation that you probably won't get anything back for it. It's kind of like the concept of openess. Openess is the idea that you share things with people without being asked. Generosity is kind of the same way. Giving to others without being asked or expecting anything in return.

Gifts can be of any kind. Time, Kind Words, Transportation, Cards, Notes, Friendship, Helping a Hand, and Objects are all things we can give to each other. Imagine if everyone of us was generous to the people around us. I'm pretty sure no one would be sad on Valentine's Day or Christmas. Everyone would have recieved the love and affection from others that Christ gives to us every time we take a breath. Generosity is such a powerful thing. It not only builds character, it builds a Christ-loving role model for those younger and more inexpirienced at life than you are.

One thing that I wish for life is for more and more people to become generous people. Just like the Bible verse says today. You will be given back more than you can imagine. It might not be right away, but it sure does come back in amazing ways.

Let us all be more generous people in our lives.

Thanks for Reading Today

God Bless,

Oddball

Do Not Obsess Over Stuff..it's not Like Everything has One Direction's faces on it. LOL

   

     "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope," (Romans 5:3-4) (ESV)
 

Good Morning Oddballers,

I really dislike making a One Direction refrence in my title because of their mass popularity in the United States, but I think it has some potential to be a good example for what I want to touch on today. First of all, I would like to ask you an direct question; "Have you every obsessed over anything?" The answer should be Yes..or I don't know because I think at some level we all have focused on something so much that it drives us crazy.There are a couple examples that I've seen recently that I think fit this example.

One Direction Fans...SOMETIMES. I mean, I like some songs that they wrote, but I don't sit and talk about them like I know them, follow their every step, listen to every interview, scream whenever their song is played on the radio, cry when I meet them in person. I just go, "That's song is decent." I listen to it and move on.

The Other Is Packer Fans...Since I live in Green Bay, WI. I know how religiously (no pun intended) they follow everything Packers. The newspaper is covered with Packer stuff, you cannot walk into a Target, Walmart, Shopko, Kohl's, American Eagle, Old Navy, or most other department stores and not find SOMETHING with either cheese or the Packer logo on it. The Fans are crazier than I have ever seen at any other sports event, and they dress like it to. Sometimes I feel like being a Packer fan to them totally takes over their life.

Too often people tend to focus on something other than God. The material things in this life tend to have us OBSESS over the minute details. Focus on God and the plan that he has for you.

One thing that I know works for me is to just stop what I'm doing at the end of the day, meditate with God and just set all of my stress, fears, and anxiety aside and just focus on the Lord and his plan that he has for me. Listening for the word of Lord and having a conversation with him about my struggles. It is a good way to change your focus to an area that is better than constantly obsessing over a celebrity or some other material posession.


I wish you all the best today..

Much Love and God Bless,

Oddball

A letter to My Readers

"Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked." (Psalm 97:10) (NIV)
 

Dear Oddballers,

Today I'm going to play it a little chill because I want to address to you all why I write my blog. I have asked myself this question recently and I just want to let you all know what the response to that question is. I left a Bible verse as well today because I want to make sure that I am still incorporating somewhat of a devotional into my post.

The first reason is that it reminds me why I am on this planet as a Christian. I'm one of those people that needs a constant reminder of my worth to God and society. This blog is a way that I dive into the scripture and am reminded on my reason for waking up every morning. My life has continually been struggle after struggle. I don't usually get a break on life to be honest. I have talked to some people recently and they told me how they feel so blessed sometimes that they honestly want to struggle a little bit so that they can grow in their faith. Personally, I think either extreme is a struggle. I'm one of those people that has expirienced Many Many different things in my lifetime that should never be expirienced by any individual, however, it makes me stronger in that I can connect with people on all different walks of life. I can attempt to understand the kind of pain and suffering they are induring and have somewhat of an idea the kind of support they need. That it why I need a reminder all the time. I tend to lose my focus. Writing Monday-Friday on this blog, Saturday video blogs, and Sunday Hope Daily Devotional contributions is a way I'm consisteently reminded. :) Now you know.

The second reason is that I have unconditional love and a passion to serve others through my words. Mostly in the form of writing and speaking. My top love language is quality time, I strongly value one on one conversations and its how I learn to connect. This blog makes me feel like I can talk to each person one on one on topics that tend to hit my mind. It helps me build a connection with strangers so that I can give back in a way that satisfies my need for intimate relationships with people. That also explains why when I don't get quality time with people it causes me anxiety. I want to be around the people I care about. This also explains why reading my Bible isn't as fullfilling than it is to most people. I need my meditation and solitude on a daily basis to feel fullfilled.

The third reason is that I LOVE Christ and strive to be a biblical woman. I appreciate all the love, messages, support, and comments many of you have said to me on how I'm such a strong woman of God. IT's so hard for me to believe sometimes, but it is my strength other than the Lord our God and affirmation that writing is a way that I can consistently live my life for Christ.


You all are fantastic, Enjoy your Days to Come,

Praise God.

God loves you just as much as I do <3

Oddball 

I love you all as Brothers and Sisters

"With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love," (Ephesians 4:2)
 

Mornin' Oddballers,

I want to make this a bit quick today. I want to talk about something deep that has been bothering me the past few weeks. I have been struggling with the feeling of being deserving of a relationship with someone on a romantic level. For some reason, there seems to be a "worthiness" issue and I find myself consistently doubting the success of things when I know that I can emotionally handle something on that lines. So I have spent some time looking up God's love and what that means to me in my life, and I learned that nomatter how I feel, I deserve to be loved and so do you too.

Love is a funny thing. People use the word all the time like its the glue that takes a relationship from friendship to "more than friends". In my opinion, the word love belongs to all of my relationships with people. I love my friends, I love my family, it only makes sense to describe it that way. I don't "love" grilled cheese. I "like" griled cheese. If you love God, I wouldn't put him on the same level as grilled cheese. I heard that in a video on YouTube one time. hahaha.

Anyway the verse today talks about loving each other like brothers. Not saying that women can't love each other as sisters. It's just using brothers to represent both genders. In all honestly, I love you all as brothers and sisters of Christ. I try to be as humble, gentle, patient, and kind with all the brothers and sisters around me. You are all family to me. And I love you all. :)


Just wanted to let you all know that today.
Oddball.


 

Being Content.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)
 

 Good Morning Oddballers,

I want to focus on Contentment today because I feel like many people I know are struggling with the satisfaction of what they have right now. So here I go. For me, I think the struggle is more or less contentment with who I am as a person. Am I really satisfied with my identity. Do I want to be someone else. Should I be someone else? Those are the questions I have been asking myself recently. But what I think I failed to realize is that I really should have a solid foundation and full contentment with God before I can be solid with who I am as a person.

College is one of those times in many people's lives where we all struggle with the question "Who am I?" This is totally normal because I think everyone feels it once in their college career. We question whether we are worthy of a relationship and deserving of one. We question whether how people view us is really the truth or are they just being kind because they are afraid to tell me who I really am. Maybe it's the fear that some bad habits you had in the past will come back to haunt you, or some negative qualities in yourself that you never want to show in front of the people you care about.

What I can tell you right now is that I have felt all of these things in the past few months. Some rather recently and I am still working on organizing those thoughts and tackling them one on one. Just like the verse says, we need to be strong and courageous because the Lord is with you wherever you go. As much as we would like to question the location of our Savior when we are struggling, we have to be content with the fact that he is there right beside us all the time.

This also works with material goods as well. Sometimes we are so focused on the things that we want that we lose track in God's plan for us. This is completely normal on many levels and I can tell you that it is VERY difficult to be content with the things you have in that moment of time. But what I can tell you from that is that it is very possible to tackle with contentment in the Lord. The more content you are with the Lord in your life, the more content you will be with all of the things around you. One wouldn't get stressed as much because they turn to the Lord knowing that he will never leave or forsake us. It's an amazing feeling and I encourage all of you to realy consider having contentment in your life.

Now I'm going to post a video with this. It's a song call "I'll Follow You"- Jon McLaughlin. This song is about a husband telling his wife that he will never leave her. This is how God feels about us. Whenever I hear this song I think about how much God loves me this way and also how I hope to have a husband as devoted as this man.

Enjoy

Oddball

 

Hardships aren't easy to deal with. That's why "Hard" is in Hardship.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”(Proverbs 3:5)
 

Good Morning Readers,

Today I'm going cliche. Not because its easier but because we all need reminders of the same old same old. Yeah, we all go through hardships in our lives. It's part of being a Christian. Trials and tribulations will come your way. You will struggle. You will fall down. You will most likely doubt yourself and question your identity. Trust me, I've been there. Not saying I've conquered anything I just listed (maybe saying I've conquered small hurdles would be better), but I feel like I've found a good solution to dealing with it so that one's anxiety level is low and the happiness and joy is evident through anything.

The Key to this is realizing that we probably will never understand the "why" in any type of  challenge that comes our way. At least right away. We need to  learn that we CANNOT UNDERSTAND everything because, well, we AREN'T GOD. Go Figure. Trust me, if I was God, this planet would be seriously messed up. Not to mention the fact that the amount of snow would be lower, the bug population would be lower, and zombies would have not existed in fantasy literature. LOL Just to name a few things.

I learned during my winter break back home that I will never be able to control many situations I encounter, and to try and control them will just leave me stressed out and feeling overly sorry for myself that I don't have the capability to solve everything. Little did I know that I was trying to do things that only God can do. No wonder I keep failing numerous amount of times.

So what I'm saying is, this verse is extremely famous. Proverbs 3:5 should be on your top 10 most memorized and read verses in the entire bible. We should TRUST the lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. DO not try to understand everything. You will be seriously overwhelmed. You wouldn't believe the amount of stress I put myself under in an attempt to understand every situation that I was in that was difficult.

NOT UNDERSTANDING EVERYTHING = AWESOMENESS. :) regardless of your opinion.

So trust God. Seriously I cannot stress that enough.


Enjoy your day of not understanding. :)

Oddball

The Nature of Sin...Let's Make a Deal.

"When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God." (Galatians 5:19-21)
 

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today's post is going to be a little interesting. I was inspired to write this from a small bible study group that I attend on Wednesdays. One of the members was talking about the nature of sin and how it relates to "Let's make a deal." I liked it so much that I want to share this concept with all of you :) It's that good :)

Let's Make a deal is a show where the host will ask you questions, and if them right you can win cash or prizes. However, the host will also try to make deals with you for something behind one of the three doors, and sometimes its better, sometimes it's not.

Here is the example he gave. A woman was asked three trivia questions. After guessing them all right she won $4,000. After she jumped for joy, the host asked her, "Let me make a deal with you, you can either keep the $4,000, or you can have what's behind door number 2." The woman decided to risk the money and take door number two. The host opens the door, and there was nothing in it.

THAT IS WHAT SIN IS LIKE. Okay...we can't measure God's grace to $4,000. But it if fullfilling and it makes our lives whole and happy. Sin, is the temptation to walk away from God's grace into temporary happiness that in the end leads you empty inside. Just like door number 2. We get so excited to find out what's behind door number two that when it opens and realize there is nothing in it, we endure pain. That's exactly what we are supposed to feel. Pain is a signal of sin. Being unhappy is a possible sign that you are putting something else other than God in place of your happiness. Let's not invest too much of our time on many "door number twos."

The verses today do a good job at focusing on the destruction that sin can cause on a person. All of these are true. Me specifically, when I sin, the results are usually jealousy, selfish ambition, and division. I also would include enorous amounts of unhappiness and dissatisfaction with my life. That is a story for another time, but I want you all to know. That sin is very real, and it's normal to sin because of the fact that we all live in a fallen world. However, through Knowledge we can recognize some sins before we commit them. However, sometimes door number two looks too good to pass up. Don't pass up God's grace for door number two.


That's all I'm saying,

Much Love

Oddball

There is nothing more Powerful than Confidence and a Smile :D

"Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:31) (ESV)
 

Good Morning Oddballers,

Today I want to touch on Confidence because I feel like it is something that I think many people struggle with in life. I'm sure I covered this topic previously but honestly, repetition doesn't hurt in my opinion. As we get older and mature, there are always new insights on the same topics. We can never stop learning. So what I'm saying is, most likely what I'm going to say in this post will not be the same as any of my previous posts on confidence.

Well, today I want to focus on Confidence to express who we truely are. Just like the verse is saying. We are of high value. If you guys caught my video blog on intimate relationships, you all would know how I feel about people of High value----they are addicting and attractive people to be around.  If God values us so strongly. We should value ourselves with just as much love as God loves us. Yeah, I could go on and talk about how we should exercise, be healthy, read our Bibles, and treat others with respect as a way to show how valuable we really are. However, therre is that glue that sticks all of the those actions in life together...and that my friends, is Confidence.

As Christians, we need to be confident in who we are. It's our job to showcase Christianity in a way that people would look up to and not despise.Let us be the inspirational people in life and not the punch lines in shows like Family Guy and South Park. If you haven't heard of those shows before, don't worry about it. :) It's not the greatest representation of American society. You're okay :).Having confidence makes it easier (not saying easy) to showcase our faith well.

Throughout my spiritual journey, I try my very best to be kind to others and show them how truely valuable they are to me as well as Christ. I have been through depression, and suicidal thoughts a couple years ago, I know what it feels like to think that you have no value in life and no one cares. In all honestly, a LOT of people care. As hard as it is to see sometimes. They really do.

Now, on confidence again. Do NOT be afraid to say "hi" and smile to people. You never know who's life you could be saving with a little gesture like that. You want to know what saved my life. A stranger waved and smiled at me. This man achknowledged my existence and it was enough for me to burst into tears of Joy and hope for a better life.

It's amazing what the power of Confidence and a Smile can do for others.

Do not forget that.

Love you guys,

Oddball

It's good to be Humble, just not Too Humble

 

"He leads the humble in what is right,

and teaches the humble his way."(Psalm 25:9)

 

 

G'day Oddballers,

 

It's a little later in the day considering I had a busy morning and a very long day, but I want to touch on humility because I find this very fitting for me as of right now.

 

I was always the A student in high school. I was book savy and didn't have to put a lot of effort in to excel in high school. I come to college and with good study habits I have no problem with the work at all, however, it doesn't necessarily mean that I am good at everything. I know my faults. I know what I"m not good at. I know what I am good at. I honestly don't like talking about my grades or my achievements because there are so many. I don't like showing off everything I've done in my life because the list would be too long. I really just want to forget about it all and just focus on improving myself as a woman of God and the way I treat people.

 

It's honestly hard for me to accept comments like "You are going so far in life." "You are so smart." and other comments. I appreciate it and I honestly do believe it, it's just hard for me to deal with the pressure of being placed in a tier that I don't think I deserve.

 

That's what I want to talk about today, Humility is great when it comes to humbliing yourself around others whom you dissagree with and  a whole lot of other things, but I also think that being too humble can really harm the potential in people.

 

The verse I chose today does a really great job at showing humilty in a way that is balanced well. Learning to me humble before God and using that as a platform for humbling yourself in other situations. However, it's important to realize that we need to learn to not be overly humble and learn to accept and appreciate the compliments we recieve in life. I know it's difficult and a lot of the times it isn't easy for me to do at all. I'm harder on myself than many people think. I'm sure in some way you can relate to these kinds of feelings.

 

It's a normal thing to feel, and nomatter what happens the rest of our day. Let us soak in this verse and learn how to balance humility in our lives.

 

Much Love

 

Oddball